SAN DIEGO — The unwinding of Illumina’s ill-fated acquisition of Grail earlier this year left investors and the genomics community with a pressing question: What kind of company is Illumina going to be going forward?
CEO Jacob Thaysen on Tuesday made clear that the sequencing firm, which controls about 80% of the current DNA-sequencer market, is essentially returning to its traditional role of creating instruments for researchers in academia, the biopharma industry, and health care settings.
During a call with investors and market analysts, Thaysen stressed that the company will shift more of its attention to helping sequencing users understand the biological significance of genetic variants. That will in part require looking at how DNA is regulated in cells, as well as developing better algorithms that interpret sequencing variation. The company has plans to debut products in the next 12 to 18 months that would allow users to more easily collect data on chemical modifications to DNA and to sequence the genome with minimal sample preparation.
